Bid to block bloody arms trade

2006-10-01 20:53

London - The world has a unique chance starting on Monday to begin to curb the trade in guns and military hardware that kills at least 300 000 people each year and ruins the lives of millions more, said campaigners.

Exploiting legal loopholes and unscrupulous dealers, deadly weapons are finding their way from legal manufacturers to countries like Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda, which are subject to international arms embargoes, said Control Arms.

The group - consisting of Amnesty International, Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms - called for the first committee of the United Nations general assembly which begins meeting on Monday to start the process for a binding arms trade treaty.

Arming of abusive regimes

To support its call, the group issued a report called Arms Without Borders, highlighting the size and scope of the global arms trade and citing numerous examples of flaws.

Oxfam International director Jeremy Hobbs said: "This report reveals a litany of loopholes and destroyed lives.

"Arms companies are global, yet arms regulations are not, and the result is the arming of abusive regimes."

The report noted that so global was the arms business that few weapons systems were now sourced from any single country, with components or construction regularly outsourced.

This made it relatively easy for manufacturers and arms traders to circumvent national restrictions on supply to sensitive destinations, said the report.

Supplied from Britain

One example it cited was the use by Uzbek security forces in May 2005 of Land Rovers to fire on and kill hundreds of protestors in the town of Andizhan.

About 70% of components in these vehicles had been supplied by the UK-based Land Rover company to Turkey where they were then assembled before being given to Uzbekistan.

In another instance, the report said Austrian pistol-maker Glock planned to set up production in Brazil where it would not be subject to European Union controls.

And the value of the business is gigantic and growing, estimated to be worth more than $1 000bn this year - or 15 times annual international aid spending, the report said.

92 countries now make small arms

While the big five arms exporters - Russia, the United States, France, Germany and Britain - still dominated the trade, with China an unknown quantity, but rising fast, India, South Africa and South Korea were all increasingly active, said the report.

Elsewhere, about 92 countries now manufacture small arms and light weapons, while 76 make small arms and ammunition - with enough bullets in the world to shoot every one of the six billion inhabitants twice.

A survey of Baghdad's black market earlier this year found ammunition from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Serbia, the report said.

In the hands of despots

The Control Arms coalition said that while there were some agreements on arms control, they were political.

What was vital was a legally binding international treaty.

This, it said, would not prevent legal and responsible arms production and trade, but it could - if properly drafted and implemented - stop the weaponry getting into the hands of despots and human-rights abusers.

- Reuters